One cannot imagine a sadder day for the Egyptian nation than the one Egypt experienced upon seeing its citizens being massacred by a group of thugs in Libya. The scenes of bloodbath are heart-wrenching and devastating in both their scope and severity.
The grisly crime finds no justification in any reasonable understanding of any religion. It is only those extremists who have perverted the very essence of Islamic teaching that could even countenance the idea that our religion of mercy and reason might allow the killing of innocent non-combatant simple workers who earn money for their poor families to allow them to live a dignified life!
This tragic crime against the human conscience, which days after burning the Jordanian Moath al Kasasbeh alive constitutes but one high-profile example of the ongoing global problem posed by violent extremist ideologies to international peace and security and to image of Islam and the future of intercultural and interreligious relations.
Worst of all, these thugs have invoked religious texts to justify their in humane crimes. This invocation of sacred texts has led to much confusion and the tendency to misinterpret the lofty Islamic ideals by linking it to violence and aggression. What the terrorists often cite is a hallucination that their sick minds produce, which in fact a flagrant misreading of both the letter and spirit of the Islamic tradition, and an aberration from the great history of Islamic civilization.
There is no religion worthy of the name that does not regard as one of its highest values the sanctity of human life. Islam is no exception to this rule. Indeed, Allah has made this unequivocal in the Qur’an by emphasizing the gravity of the universal prohibition against murder, saying of the one who takes even one life that “it is as if he has killed all mankind.”
Murder and terror can never be the outcome of any proper understanding of religion. It is rather a manifestation of the immorality of people with cruel hearts, arrogant souls, and warped logic. The great corruption and instability sown by their actions are a source of great sadness and outrage not only for Muslims but more so for the entire humanity. Such terrorists are not Muslim activists, but criminals who have been brainwashed and fed a mistaken interpretation of Quran and Sunnah.
These ideologies must be challenged and rooted out both at the physical levels and more so at the intellectual level. They ought to be challenged with the proper presentation of Islam’s true teachings, the ones that have been passed down for centuries through the wisdom of a collective mass of sages and scholars. The conventional should rather be called war on terror the ideological battle against radical extremists who happen to use terror as a weapon to disrupt the global stability and the conscience of the peaceful world. That is to say; to win this war entails not just winning on the ground or in the air but more importantly, to successfully engage and exchange ideas and information to refute the dogma of these radical clerics.
Let me be clear by reiterating that Islam is utterly against extremism and terrorism but unless we seriously dismantle and deconstruct all ideas of terrorism and extremism propagated by all extremist and terrorist groups, we will never be able to eradicate this scourge. All terror groups essentially carry the same intellectual poison. This must be understood in order to build a better future that can bring an end to this grave situation that is destroying the world.
Egypt is in dire need of support of the world, as it is fighting against the terror cancer. By fighting this battle, Egypt is not just defending itself but is also defending humanity against the encroaching danger of terror. One thing that will indicate progress in this long battle against terror is a genuine desire by the international community to understand the perils radical ideology poses to the international community. This necessitates as well that the radical movements and entities which stoke tensions in the regions need to be opposed in every way possible and not given moral support to stoke more tensions. Measures such as shutting off the financial resources of the terror groups, denying them safe haven and preventing them from growth have be taken.
It is now upon us to take up this challenge of seriously and collectively ridding the world of radicalization and refrain from giving wrong signals to the radicals in order to save our world from further bloodshed.
Shawky Allam is the 19th and current grand Mufti of Egypt.
